The Game of School is an outlook where “teachers pretend to teach and students pretend to learn.” There is no real intellectual stretching of the mind. Students are at fault for doing the minimum required to pass an assignment, and teachers do the minimum required to still cover the material. The issue the Game of School brings up is that students and teachers are just going through the motions of school, i.e. the Game of School becomes school.
I see the Game of School in my placements. Often, in the ESL middle school science classes, the smartest kid at the table will use the microscope, draw what he/she sees, and answer the questions. Rather than getting up out of their seat to even look through the microscope, the other students at the table often look at his/her paper and copy it down exactly. There is no discovery, no “oohs” and “ahs” when they see the cells from their own cheek, or the chloroplasts moving along in an elodea leaf. It is only when the teacher or myself walks over and encourages them to get up out of their seat and look through the microscope, exuding excitement as we encourage them to “check out the awesome cells! If you had salad for lunch you were crunching on little rectangular cells just like these!” Then, they usually take the time to get up (as if leaning forward in your seat was a chore) and check out what we see. I think a lot of the apathetic attitude and attitude of only doing the minimum has to do with the culture of the school and the atmosphere of an ESL classroom. As this is an urban, lower SES school, the students I work with don’t outwardly see the impact of trying hard in school to get where you want to go in life. One disruptive student “wants to go to school for technology in Florida, just like his older brother,” and I repeatedly stress to him the connection between science and technology just to get him engaged. I think if the students had more exposure to future careers (maybe a career day assembly where they hear from different parents, etc) or if teachers were able to connect their subjects to things that affect the students, the students would put in more effort and care. The “do the minimum” attitude is also prevalent in the ESL classroom because the students know if they struggle they will not be asked to finish their work. They’ve figured out that if they at least attempt it (meaning write a few answers) they do not have to complete the work. This is because all of the students are at different levels, and some cannot complete the work without one on one assistance from the teacher or myself. Those that finish early tend to distract the ones that are struggling, and the ones that are struggling then have trouble focusing.
I see my CTs fighting the Game of School by doing their absolute best to get students engaged and care about what they are learning. My high school science class CT, for example, incorporates 5 field trips into a single semester for one of her classes. As this Intro to the Environment is a credit recovery class, she figured out the best way to get them to take part in the learning environment is to take them out of the classroom and show them environmental careers they could pursue. Field trips include Rhode Island Resource Recovery and the Roger Williams Zoo. I was lucky enough to attend the RI Resource Recovery trip, and the students were asking great questions, paying attention, and were really engaging with the material. At the end of the tour our guide read off a list of jobs that were currently hiring at the Resource Recovery Center and many of them could be obtained with a high school diploma. This CT also engages students by doing a lot of group work, problem solving, and demonstrations. For example, when we were creating a timeline of evolution of the planet (i.e. big bang, water on planet earth, single celled creatures, etc.) instead of having students sit silently at their desk and fill out a sheet of paper, she brought them into the hallway where they were given sheets with pictures of the activities, string, and paperclips. We calculated how long ago from present each of the events occurred, and they marked them out on their string. In this way, students could be social (especially helpful for getting ESL students involved), move around, and really engage with the material.
Features I plan to include in my classroom to avoid GOS behavior is to keep changing my lessons to fit the needs of the students, rather than using the same worksheets over and over again. I also hope to engage students by having them use all of the Multiple Intelligences, rather than simply lecture or pen and paper. I think students have a lot to learn from each other, so if each student researches a different topic, they can engage by learning things from each other. Students tend to pay more attention to what each other has to say, rather than the teacher. I also hope to bring interesting graphics and videos so students can see things they have never been exposed to before. I also hope to bring my students outside. For example, if we are doing an activity about leaves changing colors, it makes much more sense to bring them outside the classroom than it does to write down notes on why leaves change colors. I also hope to challenge each student to be the best of their ability, and always have something else for the students that finish early to do. This description of how I am going to teach fits right into my teaching philosophy because I hope to challenge each student to be the best they can be, incorporate a variety of teaching and learning methods to engage all learners, and make science exciting to them. In my classroom, I hope to teach students how to think like a scientist, and the best way to do that is by providing the activities to really get them thinking and engaged. The adaptation of the NGSS standards across the state helps to strengthen my ability to provide my students with opportunities for real world learning.
I see the Game of School in my placements. Often, in the ESL middle school science classes, the smartest kid at the table will use the microscope, draw what he/she sees, and answer the questions. Rather than getting up out of their seat to even look through the microscope, the other students at the table often look at his/her paper and copy it down exactly. There is no discovery, no “oohs” and “ahs” when they see the cells from their own cheek, or the chloroplasts moving along in an elodea leaf. It is only when the teacher or myself walks over and encourages them to get up out of their seat and look through the microscope, exuding excitement as we encourage them to “check out the awesome cells! If you had salad for lunch you were crunching on little rectangular cells just like these!” Then, they usually take the time to get up (as if leaning forward in your seat was a chore) and check out what we see. I think a lot of the apathetic attitude and attitude of only doing the minimum has to do with the culture of the school and the atmosphere of an ESL classroom. As this is an urban, lower SES school, the students I work with don’t outwardly see the impact of trying hard in school to get where you want to go in life. One disruptive student “wants to go to school for technology in Florida, just like his older brother,” and I repeatedly stress to him the connection between science and technology just to get him engaged. I think if the students had more exposure to future careers (maybe a career day assembly where they hear from different parents, etc) or if teachers were able to connect their subjects to things that affect the students, the students would put in more effort and care. The “do the minimum” attitude is also prevalent in the ESL classroom because the students know if they struggle they will not be asked to finish their work. They’ve figured out that if they at least attempt it (meaning write a few answers) they do not have to complete the work. This is because all of the students are at different levels, and some cannot complete the work without one on one assistance from the teacher or myself. Those that finish early tend to distract the ones that are struggling, and the ones that are struggling then have trouble focusing.
I see my CTs fighting the Game of School by doing their absolute best to get students engaged and care about what they are learning. My high school science class CT, for example, incorporates 5 field trips into a single semester for one of her classes. As this Intro to the Environment is a credit recovery class, she figured out the best way to get them to take part in the learning environment is to take them out of the classroom and show them environmental careers they could pursue. Field trips include Rhode Island Resource Recovery and the Roger Williams Zoo. I was lucky enough to attend the RI Resource Recovery trip, and the students were asking great questions, paying attention, and were really engaging with the material. At the end of the tour our guide read off a list of jobs that were currently hiring at the Resource Recovery Center and many of them could be obtained with a high school diploma. This CT also engages students by doing a lot of group work, problem solving, and demonstrations. For example, when we were creating a timeline of evolution of the planet (i.e. big bang, water on planet earth, single celled creatures, etc.) instead of having students sit silently at their desk and fill out a sheet of paper, she brought them into the hallway where they were given sheets with pictures of the activities, string, and paperclips. We calculated how long ago from present each of the events occurred, and they marked them out on their string. In this way, students could be social (especially helpful for getting ESL students involved), move around, and really engage with the material.
Features I plan to include in my classroom to avoid GOS behavior is to keep changing my lessons to fit the needs of the students, rather than using the same worksheets over and over again. I also hope to engage students by having them use all of the Multiple Intelligences, rather than simply lecture or pen and paper. I think students have a lot to learn from each other, so if each student researches a different topic, they can engage by learning things from each other. Students tend to pay more attention to what each other has to say, rather than the teacher. I also hope to bring interesting graphics and videos so students can see things they have never been exposed to before. I also hope to bring my students outside. For example, if we are doing an activity about leaves changing colors, it makes much more sense to bring them outside the classroom than it does to write down notes on why leaves change colors. I also hope to challenge each student to be the best of their ability, and always have something else for the students that finish early to do. This description of how I am going to teach fits right into my teaching philosophy because I hope to challenge each student to be the best they can be, incorporate a variety of teaching and learning methods to engage all learners, and make science exciting to them. In my classroom, I hope to teach students how to think like a scientist, and the best way to do that is by providing the activities to really get them thinking and engaged. The adaptation of the NGSS standards across the state helps to strengthen my ability to provide my students with opportunities for real world learning.